THE TEACHING OF NATURAL SCIENCES 141
studied more or less as abstract and theoretical
subjects in the high section, and were subjects for
the public examination only for those pupils who
took them up as their optionals. It is gratifying
that, realising the important part which science
plays in modern life, the educational authorities in
the various parts of India have recently taken
steps to make science a compulsory subject for all
middle and high schools and to include under
science physiology, hygiene and biology, in addi-
tion to chemistry and physics.
Instruction in science is really supposed to
begin in the primary schools in the form of nature
study ; but owing to the defective way in which
nature study is treated in the primary classes, the
pupils get hardly any grounding in the study of
science. The first essential for placing the teach-
ing of science on a sound basis is, therefore, to
improve the instruction in nature study in the
primary schools and to ensure that the subject is
treated in as practical a way as possible, with the
environment of the pupils as the centre of instruc-
tion. With the introduction of science in the
middle schools, it will be necessary to provide
them with the necessary science apparatus. The
high schools in H, E. H. the Nizam's Domi-
nions generally have sufficient apparatus for
demonstration purposes, but with the exception of
the first grade high schools, they lack facilities
for making individual boys do practical work
independently.
A very healthy tendency which has been noticed